Start tonight is a good sign for Byrd

NEW YORK - Colby Joshua Byrd wasn't quite sure why everyone was making so much fuss over his father. Sure, Paul Byrd was a pitcher for the Anaheim Angels back in 2005, and Colby had just watched him win a game. But Colby, then 8, was perplexed why anyone would want his father's autograph.

Paul Byrd chuckled at the memory yesterday as he stood in front of his locker in the visitors' clubhouse at Yankee Stadium.

"He says, 'Why are they wanting your autograph, Dad?' and I said, 'Well, I'm pretty good, I'm a major league pitcher, and I just won the game,' " Byrd recalled. "And he says, 'Yeah, but you're just average. If you were any good, the Yankees would've traded for you.'

"I sat there waiting for the punch line, like, 'This kid's 8 years old, is he serious?' But he had just gotten that off the video games where he'd ask me the question why the Yankees were so good and I would tell him that they spent a lot of money and traded for good players.

"Well, that sucker used that comment on me later."

All at age 8? "Yeah," Byrd said with a laugh. "He was working me."

Byrd showed his son and everyone else what the fuss was all about last year when he was with the Cleveland Indians. He drew the Game 4 start in the American League Division Series against the Yankees - at Yankee Stadium, no less - and beat them, 6-4, allowing just two runs on eight hits in five innings of the series-clinching victory.

Yesterday, as he prepared to face the Yankees tonight, game, Byrd recalled that career highlight.

"It was definitely one of my highlights when Eric Wedge gave me the ball and no one really understood why he gave me the ball and thought it was a mistake," said Byrd, who had been lit up by the Yankees last August when he gave up seven earned runs over two innings in an 11-2 rout. "We had a Cy Young winner over there, CC Sabathia, ready to go, and so he handed me the ball and I was able to get a win for my team and I felt really good."

Nodding to a spot in the middle of the visitors' clubhouse, Byrd pointed out, "It was about 10-15 feet over there, I got a lot of champagne poured on me, so it's a pretty nice memory."

Even sweeter was the fact Byrd got to present the game ball to his son. He even autographed it. "Yeah, I did, yeah," Byrd said with a laugh. "It was a pretty special father-son moment for me. We laugh about it now; he's getting ready to be 11."

Byrd, meanwhile, will get set to take part in this storied rivalry when he opposes Sidney Ponson tonight at Yankee Stadium.

"Well, I hope he's a great fit for a series like this, but the reason we got him was to win games for us whenever he is [pitching]," said manager manager Terry Francona. "His personality, on a stage like this, he'll be more excited to pitch under these circumstances instead of backing down because of nervousness or anything like that. That doesn't guarantee that he'll win, but he'll be excited about this."

It's a rivalry Byrd has watched from afar and has only dreamed about taking part in, until now.

"Now I take the hill in a series I've always watched on TV and thought, 'Man, what would it be like to wear a uniform and be involved in such a great series and such a great rivalry?' " he said. "For me to, all of a sudden, magically have 'Red Sox' written across my chest and take the field in such a big game and a big series, I can't wait. It's going to be a lot of fun."

Asked what this rivalrly compared to, Byrd, a Louisiana State grad, replied like a true fan of Southeastern Conference football.

"I think of an Auburn-Alabama game," he replied. "That's on the to-do list before I die, by the way. I think of certain things like that: Ohio State-Michigan, where it's someone's whole season. It's going to be neat and I'm pretty excited just to be a part of it."